


the worst part of tumblr was the fear

by darkest_absol



Category: Fandom - Fandom, No Fandom
Genre: Fandom Culture, Gen, Meta, originally from pillowfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-19 15:22:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22913134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkest_absol/pseuds/darkest_absol
Summary: A meta post about why I grew to dislike Tumblr and its brand of fear culture.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge





	the worst part of tumblr was the fear

You heard me. The worst part of Tumblr was the _fear_. The fear of saying the wrong thing and getting mobbed by people taking it out of context, the fear of having your post cycled beyond your control and warped into something you never intended, the more recent fear of tripping the porn checker/flagger and getting flagged or your icon pixelated or whatever because you _actually used the tag system_ to tag something as (non sexual!) nsfw.

It was unhealthy.

I was carefully judging which posts were safe to reblog, carefully wording my posts to be as harmless as possible. I became afraid to reblog anything that had even a hint of being nsfw. (The Truth Coming Out of Her Well to Shame Mankind painting? Nope, can't have that. Drawing references for human anatomy? Nope, gotta be clean!)

Now, just to be clear, I am _not_ talking about the really gross stuff, like child porn/sexism/homophobia/transphobia/all that stuff. I'm talking about having to carefully gauge your words to avoid ever becoming the victim of a misguided torches and pitchforks mob. I'm talking about having to guess which side of the discourse post you're supposed to agree with. I'm talking about feeling forced to create in exactly the _right_ way, for fear of other fans jumping down your throat for having a 'wrong depiction'. (Think that time people attacked a Steven Universe fan and _sent death threats_ for drawing Rose Quartz 'too skinny'.) I'm talking never mentioning entire fandoms because of the reputation. (Big examples: My Little Pony, or just furry fandom in general.)

And it's only now, after trying Pillowfort, that I realized just how stifling it was. I can reblog furry art, I can comment on MLP pieces, I can relax knowing that it is _literally against the terms of service_ to harass another user or start a public call out, I can relax knowing I can edit a post and have the edit show up in all reblogs. I can finally _relax_.

tl;dr tumblr is an unhealthy, stifling place for everyone and only smothers attempts at creativity.


End file.
